Definition of "philology" [phi•lol•o•gy]

• Literary study or classical scholarship. (noun)
• See historical linguistics. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One day a fellow-student, who pleased himself with what he called philology, remarked that his father must have been a hit of a humorist to name him Peregrine: -- "except indeed it be a family name!" he added."
• "After World War II, when I was working on a major in philology at Moscow State University, I chose to study American literature and to analyze the problem of "Jack London as a novelist.""
• "This moment in philology was brought to you by the late J.R.R. Tolkein. gringro"